Nice to see you rejoining the fray here, Cryo. Full disclosure: I've been shamelessly stalking your posts on IMDb ever since we chatted on A Certain POV, and your mythic battles against the forces of mob mentality and intellectual cowardice have been a wellspring of inspiration for me for a long time. I should have piped up earlier. Keep that flame of reason alive, brother.

Nice to see you rejoining the fray here, Cryo. Full disclosure: I've been shamelessly stalking your posts on IMDb ever since we chatted on A Certain POV, and your mythic battles against the forces of mob mentality and intellectual cowardice have been a wellspring of inspiration for me for a long time. I should have piped up earlier. Keep that flame of reason alive, brother.

Thank you very much, SWV!!!

Yes, sorry for the delay, but it was tactical stalling on my part, while I tried to get hold of all my DVDs and make some screen captures.

As your site proves, an image is really worth a thousand words, but I'm going to have to stick to the written word for the time being.

I'll keep battling as best I can for now, though I also feel like I've really said my piece, for the most part. On the other hand, I've been saying THAT to myself for a good year or more now!

Not many "links" to share with you at present -- I just flooded your Anakin/Palpatine thread with some -- other than, well, what the heck...

BACKPACKS.

Yes, backpacks. Or more broadly, anyone carrying anything -- an item, a person, a mangled droid -- on their back.

Also...

RINGS.

No, not the ruddy "The Lord of".

Affix your gaze on the Death Star explosions. This one's neat and simple: ANH Death Star explodes with a vertical ring, ROTJ explodes with a horizontal one. The story pivots 90 degrees; or is, indeed, polarized by TESB. Consider also the positioning of the Millennium Falcon and its relationship with the Death Star and its ultimate destruction in each.

That's all for now. Sorry I can't offer pictures, but you're rather accomplished in that department already.

What makes these two extra-special is that I sense a close connection to Lucas' own life. There's his hero avatar, Luke S., back to the camera, in private moments (like the way TESB ends, but not, ironically, either of these movies, where assembled characters face the viewer at the end), in environs that tell their own story of Lucas' self-realization: from the dusty plains of Modesto in Stanislaus County to a semi-palatial compound near Nicasio in Marin County: an upward progression within the same state/stretch of Earth. And in point of fact, the cremation scene in ROTJ was shot very near to Skywalker Ranch, just as the rest of ROTJ -- well, the outdoors bits of Endor -- was shot in Lucas' native California in two redwood national parks. It gives the final installment of the saga a "down home" feel. Knowing something about the production history of the films, however trivial, enriches them all, in my opinion.

This scene is the only part of the Endor battle that I feel hasn't aged well, and it has nothing to do with the two ships exchanging fire. It's the Corvette in the bottom left corner. The ship looks like it was supposed to be behind the Nebulon Frigate, but in the film, it stays static and remains superimposed on top of the ship. It's the only visual in the entire battle that I'm bugged with.

This scene is the only part of the Endor battle that I feel hasn't aged well, and it has nothing to do with the two ships exchanging fire. It's the Corvette in the bottom left corner. The ship looks like it was supposed to be behind the Nebulon Frigate, but in the film, it stays static and remains superimposed on top of the ship. It's the only visual in the entire battle that I'm bugged with.

This picture suggests it is behind (stern), but to right (starboard). That doesn't seem all that anomalous to me.

This scene is the only part of the Endor battle that I feel hasn't aged well, and it has nothing to do with the two ships exchanging fire. It's the Corvette in the bottom left corner. The ship looks like it was supposed to be behind the Nebulon Frigate, but in the film, it stays static and remains superimposed on top of the ship. It's the only visual in the entire battle that I'm bugged with.

This picture suggests it is behind (stern), but to right (starboard). That doesn't seem all that anomalous to me.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but if you skip to 4:32 of this video, you will see what I mean. It is in front of the Nebulon frigate, but it never changes in size, even as the Frigate zooms closer to the camera.

This scene is the only part of the Endor battle that I feel hasn't aged well, and it has nothing to do with the two ships exchanging fire. It's the Corvette in the bottom left corner. The ship looks like it was supposed to be behind the Nebulon Frigate, but in the film, it stays static and remains superimposed on top of the ship. It's the only visual in the entire battle that I'm bugged with.

This picture suggests it is behind (stern), but to right (starboard). That doesn't seem all that anomalous to me.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but if you skip to 4:32 of this video, you will see what I mean. It is in front of the Nebulon frigate, but it never changes in size, even as the Frigate zooms closer to the camera.

What? You mean I have to watch the awesome space battle of ROTJ AGAIN??? Oh, alright...

What I surmise about that shot, actually, is that the smaller ship is moving forward at the same velocity as the camera; or slightly faster, but where it seems, for a moment, to be matching speed. The frigate is simply that much more massive and would take a long time for the smaller ship to traverse. Of course, there might still be a scaling problem in that shot, but I'm not sure. The smaller ship can also be seen passing into shadow as it appears to near the hull of the frigate (a subtle recall of ANH's opening scene where the Star Destroyer captures the Rebel Blockade Runner). Neat catch.

This scene is the only part of the Endor battle that I feel hasn't aged well, and it has nothing to do with the two ships exchanging fire. It's the Corvette in the bottom left corner. The ship looks like it was supposed to be behind the Nebulon Frigate, but in the film, it stays static and remains superimposed on top of the ship. It's the only visual in the entire battle that I'm bugged with.

This picture suggests it is behind (stern), but to right (starboard). That doesn't seem all that anomalous to me.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but if you skip to 4:32 of this video, you will see what I mean. It is in front of the Nebulon frigate, but it never changes in size, even as the Frigate zooms closer to the camera.

What? You mean I have to watch the awesome space battle of ROTJ AGAIN??? Oh, alright...

What I surmise about that shot, actually, is that the smaller ship is moving forward at the same velocity as the camera; or slightly faster, but where it seems, for a moment, to be matching speed. The frigate is simply that much more massive and would take a long time for the smaller ship to traverse. Of course, there might still be a scaling problem in that shot, but I'm not sure. The smaller ship can also be seen passing into shadow as it appears to near the hull of the frigate (a subtle recall of ANH's opening scene where the Star Destroyer captures the Rebel Blockade Runner). Neat catch.

According to the scaling, the CR90 Corvette is 150 meters long, compared to the official scale of the Nebulon B being 300 meters long. So either that Nebulon B is gigantic, or they just made a gaffe with the special effects on the CR90

The 300 meters on the frigate is backed up by the earlier shot of the Falcon chasing the interceptors making a run on the ship. The falcon is 34 meters long, so it is rather small compared to the Frigate, but it works to act as a measurement unit to determine the ship's scale.

This scene is the only part of the Endor battle that I feel hasn't aged well, and it has nothing to do with the two ships exchanging fire. It's the Corvette in the bottom left corner. The ship looks like it was supposed to be behind the Nebulon Frigate, but in the film, it stays static and remains superimposed on top of the ship. It's the only visual in the entire battle that I'm bugged with.

This picture suggests it is behind (stern), but to right (starboard). That doesn't seem all that anomalous to me.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but if you skip to 4:32 of this video, you will see what I mean. It is in front of the Nebulon frigate, but it never changes in size, even as the Frigate zooms closer to the camera.

What? You mean I have to watch the awesome space battle of ROTJ AGAIN??? Oh, alright...

What I surmise about that shot, actually, is that the smaller ship is moving forward at the same velocity as the camera; or slightly faster, but where it seems, for a moment, to be matching speed. The frigate is simply that much more massive and would take a long time for the smaller ship to traverse. Of course, there might still be a scaling problem in that shot, but I'm not sure. The smaller ship can also be seen passing into shadow as it appears to near the hull of the frigate (a subtle recall of ANH's opening scene where the Star Destroyer captures the Rebel Blockade Runner). Neat catch.

According to the scaling, the CR90 Corvette is 150 meters long, compared to the official scale of the Nebulon B being 300 meters long. So either that Nebulon B is gigantic, or they just made a gaffe with the special effects on the CR90

(You can also practically see the whole of the Minority Report car factory inside David's skull).

The Kaminoans are like a cross between the classic "grey" aliens of folklore and the evolved humans -- also depicted as David's out-of-focus body against bright white -- in "A.I.". I just... love that.

"You almost lost your arm. What are you... brainless?"

Note how it's a mechanical arm that knocks Anakin over and it's a mechanical arm (super battle droid) that is built over his real one -- a real one which he later loses to Dooku, finally earning a mechanical replacement (skeletal) of his own.

Lookie, lookie, Senator, desa THX arrivin'...

baldness/shaved head + white overalls + female lover, involved in illicit relationship with main protagonist, dying a mysterious death

It has also been the contention of TFN member Stampid280HDpro that THX aesthetically fits between ROTS and ANH.

Okay, I love how this was added to the SE, to replace the boring matte painting of the original. Look how GL has let a piece of the rockface be exposed in a crude trapezoidal pattern hiding a "II" symbol within. This symbol -- "pause", "Episode II", et al. -- is found throughout the saga in a variety of configurations/places.

Great catch! There are definitely more examples hiding in plain sight - in the movies and on US dollar bills.

Speaking of which, if anyone wants to see just how esoteric some of these probes can get I'd recommend checking out http://secretsun.blogspot.ca/search/label/Star Wars. Some extremely neat observations provided you can make it past the tin foil hat aisle and the moderate OT bias.

So I just saw Jack the Giant Slayer last night, and I had to chuckle at one part because, without spoiling anything, Ewan McGregor is put in THE EXACT SAME scenario as he is at the end of Obi Wans duel with Darth Maul. He's dangling above the abyss, holding on with two hands, while the bad guy stands above him, gloating in his victory.

It's so visually similar that you'd almost think it was done on purpose, until you realize how unlikely it is that any current filmmaker would intentionally do an homage to The Phantom Menace.